Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I made this for lunch Christmas Day- it was delicious!!!! And very easy to put together. I used a whole rotisserie chicken shredded

Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 8 Hours
Ready In: 8 Hours 30 Minutes
Servings: 8
"A quick, no-fuss version of chicken tortilla soup! All you do is put everything into the slow cooker, and turn it on. Then garnish with baked corn tortilla strips!"
INGREDIENTS:
1 pound shredded, cooked chicken
1 (15 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes,
mashed
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile
peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
7 corn tortillas
vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with oil. Cut tortillas into strips, then spread on a baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. To serve, sprinkle tortilla strips over soup.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Easy and Gooey Cinnamon Croissants

Made these for a quick breakfast this morning... Delicious! I needed to have cooked mine probably 2 minutes longer. Also just realized I baked mine at 325- probably why they should have baked a bit longer.

http://sixinthesuburbsblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/easy-gooey-cinnamon-cresent-rolls.html?m=0

Easy + Gooey Cinnamon Cresent Rolls
Here's an easy & quick cinnamon roll recipe using Pilsbury cresent rolls.

You'll need:
2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1 stick butter, softened
½ cup white or brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze:
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk

Heat oven to 350°F.
In small bowl, combine butter, sugar and cinnamon; beat until smooth.
Separate dough into rectangles.
Spread each rectangle with about 2 tablespoons cinnamon butter mixutre.
Roll up each, starting at the widest side, as you would normally do for crescent rolls.
Firmly press ends to seal.
Place each cinnamon filled crescent roll onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake at 350°F. for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

In small bowl, blend all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over warm rolls.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Pork Roast with Apples & Onions and Wild Rice

I came across this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog.  It's different from anything we normally cook, so I figured I'd give it a try.  I never cook with apples so I thought we'd try something new! 

We really liked the flavor of the pork roast and it was so easy to make.  I would definitely make it again.  I tried the apples but I just wasn't crazy about hot, mushy apples with my pork.    To me, just the pork alone was great.  A word of warning about the recipe, if you print it from her blog.....it calls for beef broth, but no where in the instructions does she say to add the beef broth.  I nearly forgot and then my hubby said "what's this in the microwave?" right before it was going in the oven.  (I had heated a cup of water w/a beef boullion cube to make broth).  This is not the first time I've run into this issue with her recipes (even in the cook book), so I try to remember to read through before I really get going.  (also, she does not say anything about rosemary and thyme in the list of ingredients....but when you get to the bottom of the recipe, she says add them if you have them...just FYI.)  I added these things to the recipe below.

Now, about the wild rice.  I have never made wild rice.  I can't even think of the last time I even ate it.  We were not crazy about it and if I make the pork again, I will do a different side.  She says to boil until all the water boils out...but she doesn't specify how long this will take.  It took FOR-EV-ER!!  Seriously....like an hour and a half!  I don't know if that is a function of the wild rice or what.  Never had this issue with regular rice.  We kept checking it and checking it and checking it.......all the while the roast itself is no longer hot and we are starving!  It was not worth the wait for us.  But, if you like wild rice, just be sure you start it with PLENTY of time left (the roast cooks for 3 hours).  Or maybe we did something wrong?!

And, Darby pointed out to me the other day that PW has her 2nd cookbook coming out in the spring!  Can't wait!!!  Has anyone watched her cooking show on the Food Network?  I wish she'd done some never-before-seen recipes, but I really enjoyed it anyway.  If you don't follow her blog much and haven't been through the cookbook, then I guess the recipes would be new.  I really just enjoyed watching her with her family!

Ok, here's the link and recipe....

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/11/pork-roast-with-apples-and-onions/

Pork Roast with Apples & Onions and Wild Rice:

Ingredients

PORK:
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 whole Pork Shoulder Roast (also Called Pork Butt)
Salt And Pepper, to taste
4 cups Apple Juice
1 cup Beef Stock
3 whole Apples, Cored And Cut Into Wedges
3 whole Medium Onions, Sliced
1 whole Bay Leaf
fresh thyme and/or rosemary (optional)

WILD RICE:
2-1/2 cups Wild Rice
4 cups Water
3 cups Chicken Stock
1/2 stick 4 Tablespoons Butter
1/2 cup Chopped Pecans

Preparation Instructions

OPTIONAL: Saute onions until brown. (Or you may just add them raw to the roast.)

To make the pork roast, heat olive oil in a large pot over high heat. Salt and pepper pork roast, then sear on all sides to give it some color. Reduce heat to low. Add apple juice, apple slices, beef broth, onions, and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 3 hours. (Or you may place in a 300 degree oven if you prefer.)

Toward the end of the cooking time, make the rice: melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add pecans and saute for a couple of minutes. Add wild rice and liquid, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until all liquid is cooked out.

When the roast is done, remove the roast, apples, and onions to a platter. Raise heat to medium-high (to high) and boil liquid, reducing it until thick and rich.

Spoon thick sauce over the roast, then cut the roast into slices. Serve with apples, onions, and wild rice.

(Note: add fresh thyme or rosemary to the roast before cooking if you have it on hand!)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Rolo Turtle Fudge

For some reason, I thought fudge was difficult to make....but I was wrong!  I came across this recipe on Pinterest (are you surprised?!) and had to make it.  It did not disappoint!  If you're looking for an easy and delicious treat to make this Christmas, give this one a try.  It makes a lot (9x13 pan) so perfect for gift-giving.  I found some cute little Christmas tins in the dollar section at Target, and I'll be packaging up some of this delicious fudge to give to Caleb's MDO teachers tomorrow.  :-)



Rolo Turtle Fudge

40 Rolo candies, cut in half
1 1/2 cups Marshmallow Cream 
3 cups milk chocolate chips
1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups pecans, chopped


In a saucepan over low heat, melt marshmallow cream, milk and chocolate chips. Stir constantly until completely melted and creamy. Stir in vanilla and pecans. Fold in Rolo candy.

Pour into a foil lined 13x9 pan. Refrigerate until cool, cut into squares. Enjoy.
Recipe and picture via Shugary Sweets.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Southwestern Sausage Quiche

I had a delima the other night with what to fix for dinner.  Everything required something to be thawed and more work than I wanted to exert!  So, I searched the web for sausage quiche because I had a half a pound of sausage left over from pizza we had made.  But it had to be pretty basic because I didn't have much else in my fridge because we'd just gotten back from Thanksgiving travels and hadn't gone to the store yet.

This recipe seemed to fit the bill because I had everything and it sounded yummy!

My hubby LOVED it, he couldn't get enough of it actually.  I thought it was ok but not GREAT!  I would make it again in a pinch but probably not plan for it much to Daniel's dismay!!:)

We don't have Ranch in our house so I doubled the sour cream.

Here is the recipe.

½ pounds Sausage
2 whole Eggs
¼ cups Ranch Dressing
¼ cups Sour Cream
⅓ cups Milk
1-½ cup Cheddar Cheese, Grated
1 can (10 Oz. Can) Diced Tomatoes And Green Chiles (Ro*Tel), Drained
1 whole Unbaked 9-inch Deep Dish Pie Shell

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large skillet, cook sausage until well browned, stirring frequently. Drain off grease and set aside. Whisk together eggs, ranch dressing, sour cream and milk. Add sausage, cheese and Rotel. Stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into prepared pie crust.
Bake 1 hour. Allow quiche to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Here is the recipe I used for the pie crust.

It's a keeper.  Anything I don't have to roll out is a winner!:)

 1 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
⅓ cups Vegetable Oil
2-½ Tablespoons Milk

Assemble ingredients in a pie pan and mix thoroughly with a fork. It should come together in a semi-crumbly fashion. Once all ingredients are incorporated together, press with your fingers into the bottom and up the sides of the pie pan. Chill before filling, if you wish—no need to bake before making your actual pie!

Chiken Stew

Let me start off by saying I grew up on chicken stew!  My grandma makes the best chicken stew ever!  Chicken stew was also the best lunch day at school....it wasn't served often because the ladies actually made it from scratch but it was always exciting to see it on the menu!

My hubby had never had chicken stew until he met me and he now loves it just as much as I do.  He  said he'd never even heard of it but he's technically not from the south (which I'm assuming chicken stew is) so I guess that's why.

Anyways, I digress, I have Christy Jordan's Southern Plate cookbook and saw her chicken stew in there and wondered if it would be as good or maybe even better than my grandmas so I decided to give it a go the other day.  I will say it was good but I will not make it again just because I like my grandma's recipe better.  They are mostly similar but just a few things are different.  But please do give it a try if you've never had the wonderful pleasure of eating chicken stew.

I will say that I like her method of doing the chicken and I will do that the next time I make it but I would leave out the sugar for sure.  Oh, and I knew 45 minutes of simmering would not be long enough at all because my grams lets her stew go all day just about so I let mine simmer about 2.5 hours.

We always eat with crackers and some slices of block cheddar cheese. 

You can find the recipe here as well as pictures!

Ingredients
  • 1 chicken
  • 2 lg onions, chopped
  • 7 cups water
  • 4 cups canned tomatoes
  • 6 med.potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 cups frozen or canned whole kernel corn
  • 2 Tablespoon butter
  • 5 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons pepper
Instructions
  1. Cook chicken until done in water. Remove chicken from broth and discard skin. Separate meat from bones and shred meat.
  2. Dip off as much fat from the broth as possible.
  3. Simmer potatoes in 1 cup of broth in covered saucepan until done, do not drain. Mash potatoes slightly, keeping them lumpy.
  4. Add corn, onions, tomatoes, sugar, salt, and pepper to broth.
  5. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
  6. Add potatoes and chicken and simmer slowly with lid off for at least 45 minutes.
  7. Right before serving, stir in butter and let it melt. Best if made a day ahead and reheated to serve.